A variety of actuators are available to move various components. For example, moving various components that include control surfaces. Such control surfaces may modify an aspect of travel of various systems in response to movement of these control surfaces. These control surfaces generally have a neutral position, at which load on the control surface is minimized, and various other positions, which are subject to an increased load in order to modify the travel of associated systems. This varying load on the control system defines a load profile.
Many commonly available actuators are not designed to efficiently manage this load profile. Some common actuators have their highest mechanical advantage at or around a neutral position of an associated control surface. When the control surface is loaded at the extremes of its envelope, typical systems experience low mechanical advantage. The low mechanical advantage necessitates higher overall actuator power to achieve and maintain a desired control surface orientation. In other words, common implementations require an oversized (e.g., higher power) actuator. In this regard, a higher power actuator results in a heavier component, increased power requirements and/or increased power consumption (e.g. higher current draw), heavier support components (larger transistors such as metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs)), and the like.
Other commonly available actuators do not provide dramatic variance in mechanical advantage, but may result in a less efficient system than one that leverages mechanical advantage more favorably. Similarly, such an approach results in a heavier component, increased power requirements, heavier support components, and the like.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to develop actuation systems that leverage mechanical advantage to peak at the highest-loaded portions of a control system envelope.